Macrocriminology and Freedom

Abstract

To be a serious social democratic leader in a democracy has always been demanding. You must make the tax system more progressive, build social housing, revitalise the welfare state, grow a more redemptive and inclusive education system, increase the minimum wage, reduce discrimination based on gender, sexuality, race, age, disability and more, shift the shape of the economy so people grow in a wealth of human services while shrinking their wealth in consumer durables and other activities that burn carbon and other pollutants, strengthen dozens of regulatory institutions, energise peace diplomacy, care for refugees, revive the United Nations and be advocates within it for nuclear disarmament, and more. To be active social democratic citizens, however, in one sense demands much more than we demand of our leaders. Social democratic citizens must hold our leaders’ feet to all these fires that could see them burned by entrenched interests.